All posts tagged ‘join us’

Sixteen years ago I wrote an article in my high school newspaper titled “They Might Be Giants Simply Are.” I can’t say for sure if the article was a hit or not, frankly I’m not too keen on the statistics of how well-read my music reviews were at the time. You can check out that article here. The point is, in those 16 years and adding on the years that I’ve been a TMBG fan, not much has changed in the way of that headline. They Might Be Giants are still giants. They are still creating new music, they are still tweaking our imaginations and frontal lobes. They still, 30 years since their conception, simply are.

What has changed for us longtime fans is us. We’ve grown up, we’ve gotten older as they have and have families of our own. There might have been a point where we wondered if the music of TMBG was still for us anymore. That point lasted about as long as Data’s decision to side with the Borg Queen. The music of TMBG hasn’t necessarily aged with us, rather it has transcended the tags we’d apply to music or bands that have been around 30 years. Not only adapting to new technologies, the group has continued to tour with fervent energy, keeping us (and them) feeling younger in the process. It’s hard to imagine that over that span of time they haven’t influenced anyone — they have, whether they recognize it or not.

One thing I’ve noticed with talking to artists over the years is that they don’t always want to immediately point out or even recognize their influence on others, and that’s fine. That comes from an area of ultimate humility and being thankful for where they are. The guys of TMBG are no different. While they are one of my major influences, part of the “Holy Trinity” as John Linnell called it when we spoke (the others being Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut,) they have also held not only creative but musical influence for many others as well. After 30 years, that hasn’t changed and it’s my guess that the people they influence the most are themselves.

I have a confession to make. Actually, I have a few confessions to make, and a story or two to tell. There will also be a review in here somewhere, but I haven’t written about They Might Be Giants since high school (related to one of my stories) so I’ll be using this opportunity to get all sentimental on y’all. In my life as a writer and overall creative person, They Might Be Giants have been and continue to be one of my primary influences. So there’s that. And now they have a new B-Sides album. So here we are.

They Might Be Giants have made a career out of creating ubiquitously irreverent and wildly creative lyrics, music and themes. For those of us with wildly nonsensical imaginations, the culmination of all of our collective creativity is the continued success of TMBG. For years, and now on Twitter, I’ve perpetuated a similar sense of reality and humor as TMBG and I pride myself on being able to express myself in such a manner. Not to mention being able to stretch my mind and perception to be able to create and perceive such situations. Along with the descriptive reality of Hunter S. Thompson, I credit TMBG with helping to develop these skills.